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Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) recently offered a special screening of “Maker,” a feature-length documentary on the Maker Movement and its impact on society, culture and economy in the U.S. From the producers of the internationally acclaimed “Design & Thinking,” “Maker” looks into a new wave of Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-Together culture fueled by passion and powered by the advent of new technologies. The film explores the ideas, tools, and personalities that are driving the Maker Movement – and returns with a timely snapshot of one of the transforming influences of the current age.

After the film screening there was a Q&A panel moderated by Leslie Feibleman Director of Special Programs & Community for the Newport Beach Film Festivaltalking with local makers discussing the importance of community, creativity, making, networking, maker & hacker spaces, entrepreneurship and how anyone can be a part of the maker movement. On the panel was Bequi Howarth, Co-organizer and Core Team Member of OC Mini Maker Faire (OCMMF), Founder/CEO Steve Trindade of Urban Workshop, Ravin Kumar, Manager of 23b Shop, Kameron Campbell & Michele Lujan founders of Open House Creative, and Lindsey Zindroski, General Manager of OC Makerspace. Next upcoming event by OCMA mentioned on panel is March 22nd “Meet the Makers” a self guided tour of local maker studios of unique behind the scenes interactions.

Also a special announcement made by Bequi of the OC Mini Maker Faire at the “Maker” film screening event. “The OC Mini Maker Faire is excited to say we are official now. Our call for makers is open for tinkerers, inventors, hackers and do-it-yourselfers for the 3rd annual 2015 OC Mini Maker Faire event, May 9th located this year at Irvine Valley College. The OCMMF is an opportunity to make, create, a place to be hands on interactive, learn, invent, craft, build, think, play and be inspired.” – Bequi Howarth, Co-organizer/Core Team Member of OCMMF

About the Maker Faire & Mini Maker Faires: Mini Maker Faires are independently produced celebrations of local maker culture. The first Maker Faire started in 2006 in San Mateo, California, organized by the editors of MAKE magazine. Maker Faire creates opportunities for conversations with Makers. Tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and entrepreneurs all come together to show their projects and to talk about what they have learned. It is a community-based learning event that inspires everyone to become a maker, and connect with people and projects in their local community. www.makerfaire.com

NASA hosts 1st ‘State of NASA’ event inviting press to one of the agency’s 10 field centers. Guests invited were able to go behind the scenes at the respective NASA center and experience the diverse work of the agency through tours and presentations with scientists, engineers and managers. The event highlighted the work of the agency’s journey to Mars, testing of cutting-edge technologies, making scientific discoveries while studying our changing Earth and the infinite universe as the agency makes progress on the next generation of air travel. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at Kennedy Space Center addressed the progress made and the exciting work ahead on the agency’s exploration initiative that secures America’s leadership in space.

Image Credit: NASA

QGITS had the opportunity to attend the 1st ‘State of NASA’ event that was held at Armstrong Flight Research Centerwhich is the primary center for atmospheric flight research and operations in Palmdale, Ca.

The day begins withNASA Administrator Charles Boldendelivering a speech from NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida reaching us at Armstrong and all other NASA locations via TV Broadcast. Bolden announced details of the Obama administration’s fiscal year 2016 agency budget proposal recently submitted to Congress. He emphasized that the recommended increase of about a half-billion dollars over last year’s enacted budget would provide the necessary resources to continue advancing America’s bipartisan space exploration plans. The ongoing programs will ensure that the United States remains the world’s leader in space exploration and discoveries benefiting all humankind. Watch full video of state of the agency address by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden:

At the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas FashionTEQa fashion company that designs women’s wearables to integrate technology into women’s lives exhibited at the Wearables Marketplace presented by Living in Digital Times at the Venetian Sands convention center. Entrepreneur & CEO Judy Tomlinson of FashionTeq was showcasing and presenting latest features with Zazzi smart jewelry that’s been developed for women so they can accessorize their technology, making it functional and stylish. Watch video from the CES conference with Matt Terndrup tech journalist and CEO Judy Tomlinson of FashionTEQ.

Control how your image changes with notifications through your Zazzi-app. Choose Images your wish to wear – On your ring, bracelet or pendant your can assign images you wish to wear at any time. – Zazzi

This year at the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas 3D Systems brought in a gamut of new technologies. They showcased its entire consumer and prosumer 3D printing capabilities from new hardware and software developments in desktop full-color 3D printing, 3D printing food, wearables, software for design and virtual reality-related devices. We interviewed key team members involved at 3D Systems: Leanne Gluck, Director of Social Impact; Liz Von Hasseln, Creative Director of Food Products and Josh St. John, Director of User Experience – to see what they were working on at CES.

Ekocycle – The 3D Printer that uses Recycled Plastic

This innovative 3D printer from 3D Systems came together through a partnership with pop music mogul icon will.i.am and The Coca-Cola Company. As the Ekocycle websites states, this printer was created “to inspire new things made in part from recycled materials. Our shared ambition is to motivate brands and people like you to join us on our quest to make more sustainable living cool.”

High levels of saturated fat in the blood have been implicated in heart disease. As a result, saturated fat in the diet is generally regarded as bad for your health. A new study may change the way we perceive saturated fat in the diet. A study was conducted on individuals with metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by having three of the following: a large waist circumference, high blood pressure, high blood sugar or high triglycerides. Triglycerides are a type of lipid that accumulate in the blood stream and high levels are associated with poor health.

During the study, participants were fed a slightly calorie deficient diet (about 300 calories). Every three weeks the composition of fat and carbohydrates was changed. This study design is unique in that it investigates different diets within the same individuals, rather than across a population. The researchers found that despite some diets having significantly more saturated fat than others, there was no change in serum levels of saturated fat in the blood. This is important because it means that our dietary intake of saturated fat does not effect how much saturated fat is in our bodies—meaning diets with low saturated fat are unnecessary.

Even more interesting, they found that the higher carbohydrate diets increased the levels of a fatty acid called palmitoleic acid. According to the authors, high levels of palmitoleic acid are associated with heart disease, hyperglycemia and cancer. These findings bring to light questions about the daily recommended diet, such as whether or not we should be encouraging low levels of saturated fat and relatively high carbohydrate intake.

It’s not every day you stumble across a rocket lady, especially one that has a background in television, academia, and electronic music.

Randa Milliron, Chief Executive Officer of Interorbital Systems, is exactly that and so much more. Lucky for us at QGITS and some very special STEM students at Cypress College here in Southern California, we got to hear this woman’s inspirational story as well as get some inside information about her innovative company, Interorbital, which engineers rockets and currently is part of an ambitious team working towards Google Lunar’s X Prize , of which Milliron was a founding member.

At the CES Conferencelast week, Emotiv Insight brainwear exhibited with IEEE an organization dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity at the conference in Las Vegas, NV. This year’s theme at the IEEE exhibit is “Thinking Forward” sparking the future of thinking-forward technologies. “Thinking” was the suitable word for the mind controlled car racing game that was demonstrated by Emotiv a bioinformatics companyadvancing the understanding of the human brain using electroencephalography (EEG). The revolutionary groundbreaking technology by Emotiv showcased their latest product called Insight that is launching April 2015 starting at $299. Consumers at CES were able to try out the headset while using there own brainpower to participate in a car race propelling their car forward with their thoughts. QGITS met and spoke with CEO Geoff Mackellarof Emotiv at CES during the Showstoppers press preview event at the Wynn Hotel in Vegas.

QGITS: What is Emotiv?

Geoff Mackellar: The Emotiv headsets are based on electroencephalography which is basically picking up small electrical signals on the outside of the skull that originate from large number of neurons inside of the skull all firing in sync. The sort of signal that we see inside of the skull are a few volts but when all the neurons start firing together and by putting some electrodes on the outside of the skull on the skin, that can detect micro volts floating on the surface of the head. We made Emotiv Insightconsumer friendly that is sleek so that you can move around and act like it’s not there compared to a typical medical EEG system that involves a lot of wires on the head, gel and a couple of hours to set up. We created the next generation of brainwear that reads your brainwaves that can track and monitor your brain activity. It allows you to optimize your brain fitness & performance, measure and monitor your own or your family’s cognitive health & wellbeing connected to a mobile app that translates those signals.

Announced this week at the 2015 International CES, Toyota is opening the door to the hydrogen future, making available thousands of hydrogen fuel cell patents royalty free. Toyota initiative will spur development and introduction of innovative fuel cell technologies around the world.Toyota will invite royalty-free use of approximately 5,680 fuel cell related patents held globally, including critical technologies developed for the new Toyota Mirai. The list includes approximately 1,970 patents related to fuel cell stacks, 290 associated with high-pressure hydrogen tanks, 3,350 related to fuel cell system software control and 70 patents related to hydrogen production and supply. The new Mirai Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle was displayed at the press conference at CES and will be available in the US and Europe this year.

At Toyota’s press conference at CES,theoretical physicist and futurist Dr. Michio Kaku discusses a hydrogen future. He is a longtime proponent of hydrogen, in particular, hydrogen fuel cells as a key means to serve the world’s global energy needs and propel society to a more earth-friendly future. QGITS had the opportunity to talk with Kaku after Toyota’s press announcement. See video:

“At Toyota, we believe that when good ideas are shared, great things can happen,” said Bob Carter, Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations at Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc. “The first generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, launched between 2015 and 2020, will be critical, requiring a concerted effort and unconventional collaboration between automakers, government regulators, academia and energy providers. By eliminating traditional corporate boundaries, we can speed the development of new technologies and move into the future of mobility more quickly, effectively and economically.”

The hydrogen fuel cell patents will be made available to automakers who will produce and sell fuel cell vehicles, as well as to fuel cell parts suppliers and energy companies who establish and operate fueling stations, through the initial market introduction period, anticipated to last until 2020. Companies working to develop and introduce fuel cell busses and industrial equipment, such as forklifts, are also covered. Requests from parts suppliers and companies looking to adapt fuel cell technology outside of the transportation sector will be evaluated on a case by case basis.

This week’s announcement covers only fuel cell-related patents wholly owned by Toyota. Patents related to fuel cell vehicles will be available for royalty-free licenses until the end of 2020. Patents for hydrogen production and supply will remain open for an unlimited duration. As part of licensing agreements, Toyota will request, but will not require, that other companies share their fuel cell-related patents with Toyota for similar royalty-free use.

Companies interested in Toyota’s fuel cell-related patents will negotiate individual contracts with Toyota. Additional details, including licensing terms and application process, are available upon request.

First time ever “Re:Imagine Garden Grove” downtown open streets event sponsored by the City of Garden Grove in Orange County celebrating community, innovation, diverse cultures, and a healthy lifestyle. The event was a temporary open streets of three mile car-free environment for people to walk, bike, run, skate, play and enjoy in a public space. There was also live entertainment, tasty food and drinks along with fun interactive programs for the whole family that took place in the heart of Downtown Garden Grove like never before. The City partnered with Los Angeles-based Community Arts Resources, Inc. (CARS) to produce the inaugural event. CARS produces L.A.’s CicLAvia open streets event and other acclaimed cultural programs with parallel missions to Re:Imagine Garden Grove.

“The City of Garden Grove started a reimagine downtown website a year before this event. We asked the community to participate in the website and share their ideas on how they would like to see downtown evolve over the short term and next 10 years. The idea came out of our website to reimagine the future of Garden Grove if we could continue on with these improvements so the community could have that feeling in downtown on regular basis..that is the ultimate goal.” – Susan Emery, Community Development Director of City of Garden Grove

DIY Girls organization started by Founder Luz Rivas, empowers girls and women into STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) fields by developing educational programs and events designed to encourage exploration with technology, promote self-confidence and support aspiration into technical careers. Since 2012, DIY Girls has inspired nearly 400 girls in learning new technical skills and creating innovative projects. The organization held a spectacular social offering event “celebrating access to innovation” for underserved girls in Los Angeles at venue & coworking space -Cross Campusin Santa Monica. Throughout the evening supporters and attendees were able to try out cool and cutting edge tech demos by companies Oculus Rift, virtual reality headset and Ctrl.me, drone quadcopters, whiskey and tequila tastings and a silent auction.

“We are here tonight to support DIY Girls to help raise funds to support the efforts of Founder Luz Rivas and the number of other staff members that are serving young latino girls in the San Fernando area and making sure they are receiving exceptional after school STEM programming” – Liliana Monge, DIY Girls Board of Directors

“We are really happy to be here to showcase and introduce drones to girls because it’s been a guy thing predominantly since the beginning of our industry, now we are starting to see a lot more girls get into it and it’s really awesome to see more female operators and interest ” – Adam Gibson, Ctrl.me

“One thing that we have seen value in as a society is sending kids on field trips to do things, for most people reading in a text book is not the most efficient way to learn something, the problem is that right now, the people who can do these things are really geographically and socioeconomically limited. Virtual Reality is a technology that potentially enables students to experience education in other places and to get them on an even playing field so it’s not just for the elite few to learn about the arts and science.” – Oculus Rift Founder Palmer Luckey, Forbes.com

“DIY (“Do-It-Yourself”) Girls’ mission is to increase girls’ interest and success in technology, engineering and making through innovative educational experiences and mentor relationships. Our Goal is to help young girls create, build and experience technology from 5th grade – high school graduation.”-DIY Girls Organization